Drake Maye scouting report: Is North Carolina QB better than Jayden Daniels?

With Caleb Williams expected to go first overall no matter who's picking the player, the debate over who should go next between Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels has ensued. Daniels won the Heisman off the strength of a terrific fifth season in college.

It has him skyrocketing up draft boards, helped by some scouts saying they prefer him to Maye, who played two seasons in college after redshirting. The question will persist until the draft and even into next season, but which player is better? Here's why it might be Drake Maye.

---

Drake Maye Scouting Report

This must be prefaced by saying that none of this is definitive. These two players could get into the NFL and be great, busts, or in between. It is nearly impossible to predict this stuff, which is why Patrick Mahomes only went 10th overall, for example.

However, Drake Maye does look like he will be better than Jayden Daniels at the NFL level. Many scouts have called him a hybrid between Justin Herbert and Josh Allen. That's high praise.

Maye excels at making big plays. He's going to try throws that others won't, a la Allen. He's going to make some head-scratching turnovers like the Buffalo Bills QB as well. But he's also going to have incredible highlights and an overall stellar output.

He has good athleticism, highlighted by a few highlight hurdles and a stiff-arm that led into a left-handed touchdown pass. Maye is right-handed, for the record. He has a beautiful deep ball and has pretty strong accuracy. Everyone's seen the viral video of him nailing the crossbar from 83 yards out.

Maye isn't as mobile as Jayden Daniels is, but he ran the ball plenty and has the athleticism to make defenses pay. They're not going to be as concerned about designed runs, but he can scramble to extend plays and use his legs well.

Maye's accuracy is great. His arm strength could be generational. If not for Williams, it's likely that he would be the presumptive number one pick on most draft boards.

---

Why Drake Maye is better than Jayden Daniels

Age is an important factor to consider here. Drake Maye is 21 right now. Jayden Daniels is 23. That's not an insignificant age gap, and it's part of the reason some context needs to be added to the discussion.

Daniels has been in college for much longer than Maye has. The UNC star has two seasons under his belt, and Daniels has five. After four years, Maye would presumably be better than he is now, especially having aged during that time as well.

Therefore, Daniels being better in 2023 by winning the Heisman isn't necessarily relevant to the comparison. See how well Maye is playing in two seasons and then come back to the debate.

Drake Maye hurdling a defender

Furthermore, it cannot be ignored that Daniels was pretty awful before transferring. He was not a good quarterback for Arizona State, which is why he transferred. It should not be a huge surprise that he got better in his fifth season and with a much better program.

LSU is an NFL factory. They produce talent like few others, and they do it much better than UNC does. The offense and coaching staff around Daniels, highlighted by Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., is much better than UNC's offense.

Nabers is expected to be a top 10 pick. UNC's WR1 from 2023, Devontez Walker, is a day two or three prospect. WR1 from Maye's first season, Josh Downs, was a third-round pick last year.

For the most part, one-year phenoms don't translate to the NFL as well. While comparing Maye to former UNC star Mitch Trubisky is lazy analysis and purely helmet scouting, Trubisky can be a cautionary tale for Daniels.

Obviously, Trubisky was never a Heisman winner, but he was a one-year star whose performance in said year propelled him up the draft boards. Sound familiar?

Ever since Joe Burrow turned into a superstar after one good college season, teams are bent on finding the next example of that. So when Daniels, another LSU prospect, has an explosive season in his lone year with the program, there's a tendency to project the same rise even though one-year stars bust more often than not.

Maye and Williams were considered the cream of the crop of this class dating all the way back to last season. To that point, Maye has two years of being a 1A, 1B type prospect at quarterback with Williams, while Daniels sort of came out of nowhere.

That's not to say that Daniels can't or won't be good, but Maye has been here for longer, is younger, and certainly looks better now. It remains to be seen how the Washington Commanders will feel about it, though.